How do you follow an hour of play in the grown-up version of a kids’ ball pit? Dinner, of course, at an open-air French bistro, whose owners, being French, don’t see anything wrong with a dozen women dining topless in their establishment. Is it unusual? Bien sur! But is it shocking? Mais non. Should it be prohibited? Pourquoi? Let the wine flow, the foie gras and tartare get plated, and the shirts come off. Liberté, egalité, sororité!

We were joined by two surprise guests, the extraordinary art photographer Gunter Knop, whose female nudes are legendary…

…and this fellow, all 6’4″ of him, who must’ve come only to drink since he arrived with a box of 7-Eleven pizza in hand, and who joined us in toplessness and earnest philosophical discussion.

There were some onlookers from outside, peering in with curiosity (and iPhones — damn you, Steve Jobs!). There was a school group, and we’re told that we inspired a few dozen teenage double-takes.

But mostly the night passed without event. The food was delicious. The company even more so.

We rarely go out after the sun goes down, but when we do, we do it right. And with nights getting longer, you can expect to see us doing more of it in the coming months.

We’re delighted to have discovered Parigot, and will return there with pleasure.

In case you wonder, Parigot is a dérogatory name for Parisians, which are not always loved in some parts or the country, sometimes for good reasons (“Parigot tête de veau, Parisien tête de chien” as the saying goes — do I need to translate ?)
M. Douglas : are you familiar with my favourite restaurant in London, Food for Thoughts, smack in the center ? It’s vegetarian, I went there even before I turned half-vegetarian (is that flexitarian ?), but the food is cheap but delicious !

what do all of you expect? it’s normal to stare look or gawk at any woman who is topless in public and to take a photo of you. being topless is not normal so that is why you get attention maybe that is what your group is seeking a bunch of women going around topless to see what reaction you get your all young and foolish and all you seek is a rise from the public..

Well, it’s normal to take a second look at anything unusual you see, that’s true. But it’s rude to stare, and ruder still to stand conspicuously taking photographs. Would you whip out a cell phone and document the moment if you saw someone with one leg, or let’s say conjoined twins, just trying to sit in a restaurant and eat dinner? Or someone with a dress or haircut that caught your eye? I mean, you might, and you’d certainly be within your legal rights to do so, and it would be less or more rude depending on how you went about it, but…it’s not a very thoughtful thing to do. We don’t at all mind being noticed — as you say, we expect it — but there’s a difference between noticing us and staring or standing and photographing us. The kids in the school group noticed us, but they kept walking. It was just a couple of skeevy middle-aged men who felt the need to preserve the moment for future contemplation.

The punctuation-less comment above nearly does touch on a valid point, though. The goal for some is not just exercising the right to be clothing free above the waist. It appears that at least one member in the ball pit post removes not just her top, but her skirt as well, frolicking in only her panties. That’s the equivalent of the pizza bearing gentleman removing his shorts along with his shirt, to relax in his skivvies. Perhaps some introspection into the point of it all would not be without merit. After all, a group of people in a restaurant without any clothing above the waist is unusual regardless of gender. And when it’s in a public place, clearly being photographed intentionally, another person taking photos seems a little less weird. If it was a large group of conjoined twins, or people who all had one leg, and they were joined by a photographer in their party, snapping a few pics seems less invasive. A large group with a photographer in a public place would seem to be actively seeking attention. Still, I agree the skeeves could have behaved a bit better.

No one stripped down to (or past) her panties at the restaurant. At the request of the owners, we only went topless, not bottomless or skirt-less or pants-less. Some of us played in the ball pit in our underwear because that was a truly private location (not visible to random passers-by on the street) and the people who ran the place were comfortable with it. You’re right that our taking photos of each other ourselves probably does make outsiders feel more comfortable photographing us — but…should they really? I mean, there’s a big difference between your friends taking some snapshots of you and a complete stranger doing so. If I take a photo of my mom and dad at an anniversary dinner, does that make it okay for a total stranger to start snapping away? Or to put a finer point on it, if I snap a photo of my 9-year-old sister playing in some sprinklers, does that make it okay for some skeevy guy standing outside the playground gate to do so? One is between friends or family members who know and trust each other, the other is not, and that does make a difference. It’s a tricky question, and there’s merit on all sides. But I don’t believe the fact that I feel comfortable allowing my friends to photograph me at dinner means I should feel equally comfortable with total strangers doing so (without even asking first).

I didn’t mean to say that I thought that I feel you should be fair game for any and all to photograph. And I still agree the skeeves could have behaved a bit better. But I also think a large group of men in a nice restaurant, bare from the waist up, would attract a fair amount of attention. In this day and age, when nearly everyone carries a camera, the unusual will inevitably get photographed. We all conform to the perceived “norm” of whatever subset of society we’ve chosen to be a part. As long as that’s true, we will all be perceived as “unusual” by some. Sad. I often wish we humans were as highly evolved as we pretend to be. Be that as it may, I am in full support of your right not to wear support, and wish only that your group flourishes and thrives and gains followers at an exponential rate.